Cafe Sopra

I used to live around the corner from this Sopra and would frequent every weekend. I still visit at least once a month, and always enjoy the experience. Staff are fantastic and always offer advice on dishes and wine.
While they do not provide high chairs for children, they are child friendly and offer many dishes in a child size portion. They have hot chips and bread sticks too.
The menu changes daily but most of the popular items are always on the blackboard.
The zucchini flowers are amazing. Do yourself a favour and order the arancini too.
The linguine with lemon and chili is sublime. My children always order the ragu bolognese and they almost lick the bowl the bowl clean! Other top dishes are the fennel salad, lasagne, meatballs and chicken schnitzel.
Great coffee and selection of wines too.
Get there right on 12pm to secure a table outside in the sun before the main lunch crowds arrive.
See you soon Sopra!

This is another part of the Frateli Fresh empire, being a high end grocery with tables and a bar. The menu is on a blackboard that seems to go on forever and everything sounds yummy. Turns out it is.
The four of us started with tomatoes and mozzarella, prosciutto with grilled peaches and rocket and salt and pepper calamari. Each was fresh, delicious and elegantly presented.
We followed the starters with the pea risotto, spaghetti with prawns, linguine with lemon, parsley and breadcrumbs and pasta with a mushroom ragu. They were as good as the starters.
It does not take reservations and because it is across from The Wharf Theater it gets busy on nights when there’s a play, but if you show up early it should be easy to snag a table. Here’s a tip: it officially opens for dinner at 1800 but we arrived at 5:45 and were seated immediately.

Great spot for dinner before a show at the theatre across the road. But get there early, not because the restaurant is slow, but because the word is spreading and you’ll be queuing for a while otherwise.
The menu is fresh Italian fare written up on a blackboard to accommodate changing items. Great salads, antipasti, pastas, mains and drool-​worthy desserts. It’s very hard to just choose one dish when you’re in a hurry to make it to the show on time!
There is also a great wine list (especially if you go by the bottle rather than by the glass).
Service is quick and friendly, and the place operates like a well oiled machine. Definitely worth checking out!

I don’t know how people do no/​low carb diets. Not when there’s Café Sopra’s linguine with lemon, chilli and pangratto to be eaten! Oh My Ryan Gosling! This dish is everything you could want it to be and more — al dente, garlicky, zesty, a touch of heat, redeeming greenery, slurpable, crunch… Argh get me back there, now!
Whilst the pangratto linguine is my go to, all their other dishes are pretty amazeballs too. With the menu constantly changing with the seasons, there’s plenty of other great choices to drive you insane with indecision. But you really can’t go wrong, I’ve never had a bad dish here — mushroom ragu, arancini, octopus umido, shaved cabbage salad, scallop orecchiette… all encore worthy selections. There’s a great selection of wines and seasonal cocktails too, and the service is always impeccable; casual but attentive.
But really, if you haven’t tasted the pangratto linguine, you haven’t really tasted anything. Oooh and then there’s the banoffee pie…

Came for dinner last night and had a memorable mushroom ragu with pasta and panna cotta.
Happy with the service as the wait staff was quick, friendly and efficient.
It was Monday night and it was quiet so not sure if that affected the level service but everything ran smoothly.
The only thing that perhaps should be looked into is the menu. Guests have to walk to the blackboard to look at the menu list so I would prefer to have the menu at the table.

We ate here with another couple before heading to the night tour at the nearby observatory. We told the waitress we were kind of in a hurry, and they did a good job of serving us right away. We tried two pasta dishes, the zucchini flowers, a salad, and the pumpkin. It was all delicious and I would come back. I also like how the Fratelli Fresh store is in the same location.

What’s not to love about Café Sopra? You’re basically eating in a fresh market Fratelli Fresh that gets ‘converted’ or rather ‘transformed’ into Café Sopra during eating hours. So really, I don’t think it would get any fresher for meats and produce. The menu isn’t really super expensive nor is it inaccessible… it’s rather home style Italian across a wide range of things. Portions are nicely sized so you can get a bit of this and that.
So, for me, this all adds up to a lovely spot to show up, wait a bit for a table, and have a lovely Italian meal in an unpretentious environment; this place has no analog in San Francisco… that’s my only regret here; it’s a bit far for me to hop over for another dinner.

Arrive a tiny bit early to ensure you get a table for lunch. That means at 5 to 12. If you get there at quarter to 12, it won’t make much difference, because you just have to hang around and wait, and there’s no ordered system for handling early arrivals.
The menu options are HUGE, but they are all excellent: fresh, Italian dishes, from light to heavy. Think: brussels sprouts, pancetta, meatballs, ragu, pastas, slow-​cooked meats, polenta, cheesy goodness, and zucchini flowers. That sort of thing. It’s really fantastic produce, and they seem pretty well organised with the service (if a little huffy at times). I love the energy of this place: there are loads of staff, and it’s a reasonably big space; there’s always something happening.

The Fratelli Fresh badge apparently has some weight to it in this town and I’ve been excited for my first encounter with the franchise. It turned out to be an early dinner on a gloriously mild winter evening at Café Sopra. We had a street-​front table, as you’d like on such a night, and were ready to tuck into the grocer-​cum-​ristorante cuisine that was bound to be freshly made and beautiful.
It was, I suppose. More to the point it was cheap, with the decently sized pasta portions and golden-​brown garlic bread loaves, alongside a platter of antipasti, setting us back under $ 30 a head. For that reason alone it’s hard to criticize Café Sopra too much. The food wasn’t mind blowing — it was universally underseasoned and my duck ragu longed for a hit of acidity to counter the oil-​slick sauce — but it was worth the money spent in such a classy foreshore quadrant.
What’s hard to justify is the lack of service. I have never before had a meal at a fully licensed restaurant in which I was never offered a chance to have a drink. We did get a wine list, some stage after our food order was taken, and I had my eye on the house Cab Merlot, but between sitting down and getting up to swipe my credit card a drink order was never taken. Earlier in the night, craning my neck over the gargantuan espresso machine at the bar to the chalk-​scribed menu on the far side, the bartender himself seemed to be serving customers directly. Not so; getting up to sniff out my illusory vino rosso twice resulted only in a long wait and a defeated return to cooling food.
But it’s only Italian food, right? It works a charm without a glass of red, right? What did Billy Joel know, anyway? This is the Fratelli Fresh way! Still… I can’t help thinking about the bill and wondering how it’d have appeared with that phantom glass taking up its rightful position. Judging by how this cleanskin’s going down, it might even have had a partner…

What would we do without Fratelli Fresh and Café Sopra?
Fratelli Fresh, a chain of gourmet providores are dotted throughout Sydney in locations at Waterloo, Potts Point, Walsh Bay and the CBD.
With a focus on fresh, Italian produce it seemed a natural step to attach a café (Café Sopra) to the providores serving exactly that.
Fratelli Fresh and Café Sopra have become somewhat of a Sydney institution with the famous ‘meatballs’ selling out every day in all locations. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to score a plate of this meatball pasta you’ll know why.
With a no bookings policy and a steady stream of people coming in and out all day, you may have to wait for a table, but it will be well worth the wait.
You’ll choose from an Italian heavy wine list and a blackboard food menu, with salads, pastas, meats and fish to take your fancy.
Whatever your choice, you can be sure it will be simple and tasty with fresh Italian flavours and it wont break the bank. Plus, you’re going to get a casual, relaxed setting and efficient and friendly service to boot.
Long live Fratelli Fresh and Café Sopra!

The pastas here are absolutely fantastic. Definitely my favourite Italian place in the city. The menu is written on two massive blackboards placed on the back wall and at the entrance. There’s usually a queue to get in so peruse the menu while you wait so you can order as soon as you’re seated. The desserts here are delicious too. Try the banoffee tart.

Some of the best Italian I have ever had. As visitors, we were taken here by friends for dinner; it is a little out of the way of the well worn tourist paths.
The menu changes almost everyday according to produce available, and it’s written on a blackboard. We made sure to not order duplicates so everyone could sample a little bit of everything, and we had a great cross-​section of the menu. There’s no reservation system, so it’s first come first serve. We waited roughly 15 minutes for a table.
Everything was sensational, the mains, entrees and desserts. The wines they suggested matched the meals perfectly. Although casual, it can be a little bit pricey — it was roughly $ 400 for the 6 of us (4 courses each incl. wine and coffee), but well worth it. A very memorable meal and a highlight of my visit to Sydney. Definitely will return upon my next visit.

Love Café Sopra. This is a casual, no reservations, Italian eatery with food deserving of its 1 hat by SMH Good Food Guide. They do pasta really well and its always cooked to perfection. The last time I was there I tried the orecchiette with garlic, parmesan which was delish. But Café Sopra’s best dishes are the ragu and the Italian meatballs. These are a must-​try.
This place is a great option is you want to go casual before a performance at Sydney Theatre or Sydney Dance Company. Its also really great for weekend lunch-​times so you can sit outside. Then after your meal, you can go shop at fratelli fresh! I love this location and much prefer it to the Dank St outlet which is much busier with no outdoor dining area.

Seasonally inspired modern Italian dishes and aesthetically pleasing European waiters — why wouldn’t I want to dine at Café Sopra? Any trip to the nearby arts institutions, Sydney Theatre and Sydney Dance Company, must be punctuated with a coffee, meal, dessert, drinks or all of the above at this casually sophisticated, funky eatery.
My last visit was a leisurely afternoon tea seated up at the bright red bar. Dessert was no longer being served, but they offered us a complimentary plate of little amaretti to ease our disappointment. Before that, a three-​course dinner offered up an entrée of shredded duck meat with witlof leaves, pan-​fried pancetta and jewel-​like sliced figs. To follow was a hearty ragu of lamb stirred through rigatoni, finished with an enormous serving of tiramisu that easily satisfied two diners.
I’ve yet to check out their original Waterloo outpost, but with visits to their second sister restaurant in Potts Point similarly delicious I’ve no doubt the meal would be just as memorable.

‘Dinner-​and-​a-​show’ gets a whole lot more exciting when you include Sopra.
This fabulous Fratelli Fresh invention is a must stop on your way to the Walsh Bay delights of theatre and dance.
You’ll want to get there early. Because the jig is up — the rest of the Sydney Theatre going crowd already knows about Sopra, so you might have to fight for a seat. Then remember you’ll have to sidle up to the blackboard to read the menu — just don’t forget to spy the banoffee pie!
If it’s on offer, you should also snavel up the arancini balls; deep-​fried rounds of risotto deliciousness that you’ll have every intention of sharing, but can be forgiven for scoffing.
The only ‘problem’ is, the same goes for the rest of the menu.

Café Sopra @ Fratelli Fresh was a revelation. It provoked conversation amongst my dinner companions about the space and beautifully presented food. It provided diversion from the long day. It moved me greatly when, as walk-​ins, (Café Sopra doesn’t take reservations) we were offered a table in the midst of still waiting for the rest of our party. It subverted my preconceived ideas about what it was going to be like based on my boring experience at Café Sopra, Potts Point. It excited my taste buds and rubbished my usual control-​appetite practice after I ate most of my partner’s pasta dish (boscaiola) along with my own (pasta again, this time with beef ragu). It instigated an occasion for my family, my partner and I to meet for dinner at a convenient location (parents walked from their work in the city). It made no demands on us in regards to choice of water beverage, dessert, or the amount of time we were there.
This restaurant makes me happy.